JANE ANDERSON

Originally a feminine form of John, from the Old French form Je(h)anne. Since the 17th century it has proved the most popular of the feminine forms of John, ahead of Joan and Jean. It now also commonly occurs as the second element in combinations such as Sarah-Jane. In Britain it is still one of the most frequent of all girls' names. It is not a royal name, but was borne by the tragic Lady Jane Grey (1537–54), who was unwillingly proclaimed queen in 1553, deposed nine days later, and executed the following year. Seventy years earlier, the name had come into prominence as that of Jane Shore, mistress of King Edward IV and subsequently of Thomas Grey, 1st Marquess of Dorset, Lady Jane's grandfather. Jane Shore's tribulations in 1483 at the hands of Richard III, Edward's brother and successor, became the subject of popular ballads and plays, which may well have increased the currency of the name in the 16th century. A 19th-century influence was its use as the name of the central character in Charlotte Brontë's novel Jane Eyre (1847). From 1932 to 1959 it was used as the name of a cheerful and scantily clad beauty whose adventures were chronicled in a strip cartoon in the Daily Mirror. It is also borne by the American film stars Jane Russell (b. 1921) and Jane Fonda (b. 1937).

Scottish and northern English: very common patronymic from the personal name Ander(s), a northern Middle English form of Andrew. See also Andreas. The frequency of the surname in Scotland is attributable, at least in part, to the fact that St. Andrew is the patron saint of Scotland, so the personal name has long enjoyed great popularity there. Legend has it that the saint's relics were taken to Scotland in the 4th century by a certain St. Regulus. The surname was brought independently to North America by many different bearers and was particularly common among 18th-century Scotch-Irish settlers in PA and VA. In the United States, it has absorbed many cognate or likesounding names in other European languages, notably Swedish Andersson, Norwegian and Danish Andersen, but also Ukrainian Andreychyn, Hungarian Andrásfi, etc.